This news release is available in German.
The Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) will establish 18 new Priority Programmes, in which researchers will investigate fundamental scientific questions in particularly topical or emerging areas of research over the next few years.
The new Priority Programmes were selected by the Senate of the DFG - Germany's largest research funding organisation and central self-governing organisation for the research community -in Bonn from a total of 87 initiatives. This represents 15 more initiatives than the previous year, indicating a very high interest in the Priority Programme as a funding instrument.
The newly established Priority Programmes cover the entire spectrum of disciplines, from humanities and social sciences, life sciences and natural sciences to engineering sciences. Topics range from research into turbulent flows, the physics of Rydberg atoms with their various applications in science and technology, to the newly defined class of innate lymphoid cells to decoding the mRNP code which is crucial to the existence of every cellular organism. Another topic is if and how organisations can use forgetting as a mechanism to cope with the growing flood of information in their environment. Some of the other newly selected programmes are aimed at creating the scientific basis for the development and establishment of new cyber-physical system networks in communications and information technology, at minimising the tendency of lightweight structures to vibrate, and at measuring and creating models for the rise in sea levels at a local and a regional level.
All the programmes are highly interdisciplinary and are notable for their application of innovative methods. Support for early career researchers is an essential part of all the programmes, and is in fact one of the key criteria for the establishment of a new Priority Programme. All programmes also have a gender equality strategy.
The approved initiatives describe the main subject of a Priority Programme. Over the coming months, the DFG will announce a separate call for proposals for all 18 programmes. Proposals will be evaluated in a rigorous review process to determine their scientific quality and their contribution to the general topic in question.
A total of approximately 105 million euros will be available for the 18 new programmes in the first three-year funding period. The Priority Programmes are generally funded for six years. Currently a total of 91 Priority Programmes are being funded. The 18 new programmes will get underway in 2016.
The new Priority Programmes grouped by scientific discipline are:
Humanities and Social Sciences
"Intentional Forgetting" in Organisations
(Coordinator: Prof. Dr. Annette Kluge, University of Bochum)
Life Sciences
Nucleotide Second Messenger Signalling in Bacteria
(Coordinator: Prof. Dr. Regine Hengge, Humboldt University of Berlin)
Next Generation Optogenetics: Tool Development and Application
(Coordinator: Prof. Dr. Alexander Gottschalk, Goethe University Frankfurt)
Innate Sensing and Restriction of Retroviruses
(Coordinator: Prof. Dr. Oliver Till Fackler, University Hospital Heidelberg)
Innate Lymphoid Cells
(Coordinator: Prof. Dr. Andreas Diefenbach, University of Mainz)
Iron-Sulfur for Life
(Coordinator: Prof. Dr. Silke Leimkühler, University of Potsdam)
Deciphering the mRNP Code: RNA-Bound Determinants of Post-Transcriptional Gene Regulation
(Coordinators: Prof. Dr. Utz Fischer, University of Würzburg; PD Dr. Niels H. Gehring, University of Cologne)
Natural Sciences
Non-Smooth and Complementarity-Based Distributed Parameter Systems: Simulation and Hierarchical Optimization
(Coordinator: Prof. Dr. Michael Hintermüller, Humboldt University of Berlin)
Coordination Networks as Building Blocks of Functional Systems (COORNETs)
(Coordinator: Prof. Dr. Roland A. Fischer, University of Bochum)
Volunteered Geographic Information: Interpretation, Visualisation und Social Computing
(Coordinator: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Dirk Burghardt, Technical University of Dresden)
Regional Sea Level Change and Society (SeaLevel)
(Coordinator: Prof. Dr. Detlef Stammer, University of Hamburg)
Manipulation of Matter Controlled by Electric and Magnetic Fields: Towards Novel Synthesis and Processing Routes of Inorganic Materials
(Coordinator: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Olivier Guillon, Research Centre Jülich)
Giant Interactions in Rydberg Systems (GiRyd)
(Coordinator: Prof. Dr. Tilman Pfau, University of Stuttgart)
Engineering Sciences
Changes to the Dispersity, Structure and Phases of Proteins and Biological Agglomerates in Bio-Technological Processes
(Coordinator: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Arno Kwade, Technical University of Braunschweig)
Polymorphic Uncertainty Models for the Numerical Design of Structures
(Coordinator: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Michael Kaliske, Technical University of Dresden)
Turbulent Superstructures
(Coordinators: Prof. Dr. Bruno Eckhardt, University of Marburg; Prof. Dr. Jörg Schumacher, Technical University of Ilmenau)
Cyber-Physical Networking (CPN)
(Coordinators: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Sandra Hirche, Technical University of Munich; Prof. Dr.-Ing. Klaus Wehrle, RWTH Aachen University)
Calm, Smooth and Smart
(Coordinator: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Peter Eberhard, University of Stuttgart)
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Further Information
Media contact:
DFG Press and Public Relations, Tel. +49 228 885-2443, presse@dfg.de
Information is also provided by the coordinators of the new Priority Programmes.
For information on DFG Priority Programmes also see: